"What's a tweaker?"

That's what I asked when one of the 3 developers (including me) here at work when he mentioned it. I guess it's basically a twitching behavior observed in methamphetamine addicts. It's big news out here. It's in the papers, it's on the news, there's state legislation directly addressing it. So look for it to come you're way as it moves from west to east. There's this really cool show called Oregon Field Guide which I've been DVRing and one of the episodes last night had a 10 minute thing on how meth production is moving into the wilderness. It's toxic stuff. Something like in order to make 1 part meth you get 6 parts of toxic sludge. Houses blow up and it seeps into the drywall. There's some gross pictures on how it ravages you - it needs a place to escape when you take it and comes out through your skin. Check out these photo's - you can mouseover and see the effects. So now I know what a tweaker is. Make sure you use it to rip on your buddy when his leg is unconsciously bouncing up and down when he's sitting in a chair...

WWII Buff?

It's no secret that I enjoy history. Two new movies are coming out based on the Pacific side of the War. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Flags of Our Fathers and Red Sun, Black Sand. Also on Oregon Public Broadcasting there's a two part series, Japan's War In Colour that "uses never-before-seen footage to provide a remarkable color record of Japan from as early as 1931 when it began transforming into Asia's biggest power".

Check it out if it's playing back in the Midwest...

Shot from riding downtown Portland... all sorts of boats and shops along the Willamette River

Another beautiful day here. 77°. Sunny with not a cloud in the sky. Woke up nice and slow, had some blueberry pancakes, leveled the lock to 37 and then headed outside to enjoy the weather. Did another easy hour on the bike today. Toured some more of downtown.

I stopped while heading into downtown to take a couple shots of Mount St. Helens. Heres a shot without any zoom.

Next shot I zoomed in abit. Check out all the bridges. Thats the Willamette River snaking through downtown Portland. Sometimes I need to pinch myself because there is all this beautiful scenery on the horizon and sometimes while youre riding and training you have a tendency to look down or ahead; and rightly so, you don't want to crash. But it's nice to slow down sometimes and take in the day...

Like take this guy painted all silver and standing on a box outside I forget what store. Am I in New Orleans?... these guys are all over there. When I first approached he was doing a statue pose, then he pulled out some glass globes and started spinning them in this shot. He had attracted quite a crowd. Note the Starbucks across the street... you cannot escape these things.

A little further north right in the city is the Portland Beavers baseball stadium. No thats not a typo yes they are called the Beavers. Portland doesnt have a pro team and this is the minor league. Thursdays are called thirsty Thursdays beer is half off and I guess its pretty fun Im looking forward to checking it out. Ive been to a few Milwaukee Brewers games and I was always more impressed with how the small minor league teams treated the fans.

On the way home I snapped this shot of the hill so you could get an idea of the elevation change and climbing required to get home.

Sometimes I'm stuck between feelings of being impressed and then feelings of thinking "Man thats really foolish" when I see where they put these houses...

I probably shouldnt have posted all these shots of a sunny day in Portland... I mean really it just rains here all the time and you should never think of visiting or coming out here to live. Its just terrible. Really.

Rather then heading straight to the party I decided to check out Live Wire again. Specifically because one of the musical guests was none other then Art Alexakis the lead singer from Everclear.

I had a good seat. 3^rd row. He seemed like a really laid back cool guy that you could sit back and have a beer with. He sang two songs. The show is in two parts, theres a 10 minute intermission after the first hour and you can go buy food or drinks. He played an acoustic version of one of the new songs coming up in the new Everclear album due out this fall during the first half of the show (yes a new Everclear album!). Then in the second half of the show he played an acoustic version of Wonderful. The other musical guest was The Minus 5. The bass player is from R.E.M.

Chuck Barris, who created game shows like The Gong Show, and The Newlywed Game was also a guest. He came out and sand a song with The Minus 5.

I also really enjoyed listening to this Slam Poet named Taylor Mali. He had the crowd cheering. I'm not into poetry and this really wasn't like a poem you'd read in school. It was more like a short story. Very good and inspiring too. He had a lot of nice things to say about teachers.

One thing about Live Wire is its attached to Oregon Public Radio it can get a little left-wingish during the show as they rip on the President or talk about how great and progressive they think they are... but all in all its a very good live show, with great beer, and good food and I cant wait to go the next one in May.

After that I headed out to this party for one of Heidi's & Jenn's friends that just turned 30. Jenn's husband Pat and his band played but they were done when I arrived and were doing karaoke. It was in this smokey dive bar called Wynne's Cafe & Spirits. The bartender was the worst... it took her forever to get your drinks and there was hardly anyone in the darn place.

I was hungry and still feeling the booze from the Friday night so I cut out around 1:30 am since the party was dying anyway and went to this restaurant that Pat recommended called the Original Hotcake and Steak House. Open 24 hours. Man this was good food for 2 am. You basically stood in line and placed your order while watching the short order cook work his magic. It was run by a couple of old guys doing the cooking and working the register. Pretty close to what a diner would be. Since its so close to Heidi's I can see myself hitting that after a night out... like we should've on Friday.

Doesn't the saying go "beer before liquor gets you sicker"? Can't believe we slept until noon. Not sit in bed having conversation ... literally woke up at noon. I never usually get a headache either. Mental note - no vodka after beer...

Heidi left soon after we woke to go to Eugene. A very good friend of hers is going through a tough time. Her father was diagnosed with brain cancer and given like a year to live... very sad.

I spent the early afternoon finishing up the work on the spare bedroom wall that now has shelves and a counter top for a desk along it. I failed to take a "before" photo so I won't post an "after" photo. I think it turned out really good and it was nice to collaborate together and see the work being completed.

I went for a ride in the late afternoon. I have been mentioning the view of Mt. Hood from here. It's about 75 miles east of Portland. I took a couple shots during my ride down into the city. This one is with no zoom. Hard to believe your looking out across 75 miles.

This one is from the same spot but zoomed in a bit.

I also stopped down at the riverwalk area down near the Willamette River which passes straight through downtown Portland. I wanted to get a shot of these Dragon Boats I've been seeing on the way to work but I didn't see any while I was down there. I explain more on that later...

I also rode past the infamous Bettie Ford

I'm still kind of lost riding around downtown but it's fun to check things out and see where you end up.